


The New Drifter

by DeathByBobaTea



Category: Hyper Light Drifter
Genre: Gaurdian finds Drifter, Gen, Guardian is nonbinary, its a rule cause my nonbinary ass needs it to be, its just a thing if youre gonna write hld fanfic someone has to be nonbinary i dont make the rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 07:03:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14539254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathByBobaTea/pseuds/DeathByBobaTea
Summary: It was a very good thing that Guardian had brought a full inventory of health kits with them into the West this morning.Because between hope and hopelessness, they would choose this new Drifter.





	The New Drifter

   The Guardian had been young when the era of funerals and clearly marked graves was brought to a close. They held vague wisps of memories, so distant they almost felt like well disguised dreams, of a temple stuffed with people come to lay blue flowers around the body resting in a long box. They remembered more clearly the sound of dirt hitting the lid as it was buried, how it had sounded hollow and how suddenly the death of their grandren felt too real. For all that came after it, the Guardian did not mourn the end of funerals.

  
    The Titans and the wars against them brought new traditions. Bodies were left where they fell. They were scavenged by creatures looking for nourishment and by people looking for weapons. They were eternally preserved in the emerald shards of the West or left to rot in the already putrid waters of the East. Dragged into the pink tanks of the South and left to mutate or onto the altars of the Northern cults and cut open in search for evidence of a soul. 

  
     Death became commonplace and there was no time to fear it the same way there had used to be. Too busy trying to keep the living alive.

  
     After the fall of the Titans, there were gardens of blue flowers planted for the dead but there was no going back to the old ways. Drifters were left to rot where they died, waiting to be discovered and their means of survival carried on by new generations. The Guardian bore the helm of a knight that died in the war against the West Titan, the cloak of a Drifter that fell to her death in the North, and a HUDbot whose owner had starved in one of the South's cells. They bore those people's legacies and when Guardian dies, someone new would inherit their line.

  
    If the Haloed Jackal had not been overlooking the Drifter's limp body, the Guardian would not have hesitated to claim his belongings and begin the long trek back to Central. He was unmoving and slathered in the magenta tint of red blood mixed with the pink sludge of the Illness. The Guardian felt a twinge of pity sting their chest, knowing too well that deaths brought about by the Illness were never painless. The Drifter's chest barely moved with breath. He did not have long now.

  
      The Jackal sat regally straight and silent several meters back, her bright eyes trained on Guardian as they assessed the dying Drifter. An otherworldly hum radiated through the air between them and her intentions immediately become clear.

  
                    * **THIS ONE.***

  
    This one? 

  
    The Jackal chose all her Drifters, oversaw all their efforts, deaths, resurrections, and progress towards finding the Abhorrent Cell. Including the Guardian, she currently had three and she had clear reasons for claiming each one of them. But this one? He was already so close to death and even with her powers, she could not resurrect a Drifter killed by the Illness. This one would be useless to her soon.

  
                     ***THIS ONE.***

The hum resonates forcefully through the Guardian's bones and they clench their teeth against it as she continues 

                ***HE IS STRONG. HE WILL FINISH THIS.***

**  
** How could one finish this when three and all the legacies they carried could not fight against the Entity long enough to raise even a single tower?

  
     But the Guardian had been following the Jackal for close to two years now and still no Panacea had been produced. They did not have enough time left to start doubting her now. 

  
     It was a very good thing that they had brought a full inventory of health kits with them into the West this morning.  Because between hope and hopelessness, they would choose this new Drifter.   
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I started a second chapter but never finished it. This fandom needs more fic so maybe if I get enough love I'll dig around and find it.


End file.
